God 10 Disney 1

(South Florida, 3/11-12/2010) After overdosing on Disney World we were blown away by the natural beauty of the Florida Everglades. I appreciate the vision and creative genius of Walt Disney and on one level, what he was able to imagine and accomplish in building a world from his imagination is remarkable. But if there is a competition for creative genius and accomplishing the bringing together of a vast array of complex and inter-dependent parts...God wins every time.
We knew next to nothing about the Everglades and most of it was wrong. It is not a swamp as we thought, rather it is a very large (8 miles wide at one point) freshwater river that effectively collects the runoff from huge Lake Okeechobee in Central Florida and funnels it to the Atlantic Ocean and Gulf of Mexico in the far south of Florida. An amazing interlinking system of grasses, mangrove and cypress trees, and slight elevation (a gradual drop of 14 feet in over 100 miles) the Everglades flows in a subtle but steady current. The grasses and trees act as a filter for all the water to make it incredibly pure. The estuary formed in the south where the salt and freshwater combine, is the breeding ground for over 80% of the salt and fresh water fish found in Florida, the Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean Sea. The whole eco-system is home to a vast array of birds and other animals (I was hoping to see a Florida Panther; Joy was not) as well as plants and trees. We saw a bird called an Anhinga swimming in the water to catch fish for dinner. Since they have no oils in the feathers like ducks and geese to repel water, when they come out of the water they fly to a nearby tree branch and spread their wings to air dry! And alligators are everywhere. After looking hard to see a gator in or near the canals we drove by getting to the park, in just an hour or two we saw more than 30 or 40. The Ranger's estimate there are 30,000 gators in the Park. The Everglades is also the only place in North America you can find the American Crocodile. The Croc likes brackish or salt water whereas the Gator likes freshwater. We took a boat ride into the Everglades back country and finally saw a Manatee in the river, an animal we had heard so much about.
Look at the pictures and decide for yourself. Who is the better creator: God or Disney?

Florida

(Somewhere in Florida; 3/20/2010) As we left Florida behind this morning Ed made the comment that we had driven from one end of Florida to the other. My reply to that was "and I didn't come across any place that I thought I'd like to live." So we can mark Florida off of our "possible places to retire" list! Even though Florida is not for me it did provide me with a couple of "people encounters" that I am thankful for. After searching for my friend, Cathy Varenkamp Rankin, I finally connected with her on Facebook and was surprised to learn that she and her family now live in Miami! We were able to visit with her, meet her husband, Randy, and 3 of their 5 kids, Andrew, Shannon and Luke, have a meal, go to church, and visit some more. It was so good getting caught up and seeing and hearing all that God has done and continues to do in their lives. Her husband, Randy, is the Director of The Baptist Children's Home, a challenging job. It was a wonderful reunion and now that we have reconnected, her family will be in our prayers.

The other connection we made was with a young Chaplain, Doug Grace, who is in the Coast Guard in Key West. His spiritual care and personal concern for the 800 men and women at that base is one that would cause many people to lose heart. The easy access to all the temptations the area has to offer can suck these young kids in and lead to adultery, divorce, financial problems, poor parenting and all the pain that goes with that. His heart for his "coasties"--the men and women who serve there, and his desire to honor and glorify God before them was so encouraging. I may never see this young man again in this life but I know that one day I will see the fruit of his life on the new earth and I will be praying for him and his family from now on.

So while Florida is not the home of my choice, it did offer some refreshment for the soul and so I'm glad I came...I'm also glad I left!!!

Disney Hollywood Studios

Hollywood Studios is a separate theme park this park is supposed to take you behind the scenes of how Disney animation and films are made, stunts performed, filming done, scenery made, etc. Plus a couple of shows with real people doing scenes from Beauty and the Beast and Little Mermaid. Some of it was really hoakie and some if it was well done. My favorites were a stunt show based around a "filming" of the Cairo scene from Indiana Jones Raiders of the Lost Ark and a really well done stunt car show. I got portions of both on video...I will try to figure out how to post them. One of Joy's favorites was a ride that took you through a dozen or more movie sets with scenes and figures from some of the most popular films of all time like Casablanca, Wizard of Oz, Tarzan, Singing In the Rain, among others. And of course we went to the Twilight Zone and experienced the Tower of Terror in the old Hollywood Hotel. Quite a thrill!

Disney in Pictures

A few Magic Kingdom pictures.

DOD

Is it possible to experience Disney Over Dose? After a day and a half of giggling teenagers, crying children, screaming babies, cranky parents, being crammed like sardines on the monorail or ferry, hurrying from one place to the next in order to stand in line for 10-50 minutes for a ride, eating corn dogs, funnel cakes, caramel corn, hamburgers, french fries and cokes, I say a resounding YES! Leaving the park last night, if one more person had told me to have a "magical day" I might have snapped. Fortunately, Ed got me out of there before that could happen. Now you know I'm kidding, right? Of course Disney World is great but I've come to realize that what makes it great is seeing it through the eyes of children. Sure the fireworks were fantastic, the parade was great, some of the shows we saw were fun and educational. But during the course of the ride or show or fireworks or parade I would find myself scanning the crowd to watch for the look of wonder and excitement in the children's eyes. Their cries of Ariel, or Mickey or Cinderella or whoever was there made me look in that direction with expectancy of what I would see. What to me was a boring ride became a great adventure when I watched a little girl or boy cringe in fear from a fake crocodile or jump up and down when seeing a fake Tinkerbell fly by. So I think Disney needs to have a rule for those entering the Magic Kingdom...NO ADULTS ALLOWED UNLESS ACCOMPANIED BY A CHILD!

Most People Would Not Do That

(Ridgeland, SC: 1 March 2010) Stealing is a sin right? Most people would not take something from a store without paying for it. That's stealing right? Is it stealing if the salesperson makes a mistake and charges you less for an item than it cost? Or what if they miss an item and don't charge you at all? Is that stealing? Is it wrong? Is it sin? If you were overcharged for an item and discovered it later would you go back to the store and point it out? What if you were undercharged? Or not charged?
On our way back from Florida in late February driving up I-95 somewhere north of Brunswick GA we had another tow-car incident. The locking pin on one side of the tow-bar that keeps the car hooked to the tow-bar hooked to the RV, somehow shook loose. The pin fell out and I was towing the car by only one bar...not good. I felt it immediately when I was driving and saw it in my rear camera. The car was slewing from side-to-side without the other bar to hold it solid. Traffic backed away and I was able to slow the rig down and stop without incident. We didn't have a replacement pin so we unhooked the car from the RV. Joy drove the car and I drove the RV. We got back on the road headed for Charlotte, NC to see our friends.
To tow the car again, I needed to find a dealer for Blue Ox, the brand of tow-bar we have, to get a pin replacement. This was the weekend of the snowstorm that hit as far south as Atlanta. About 20 miles south of Savannah we saw snow on the sides of the road. This day, there was no snow on the road and very safe, dry driving conditions, but we could see on the sides of the road evidence of what had been only a few hours before. About 20 miles into SC we found an RV dealer who was also a dealer for Blue Ox. We pulled off the highway, parked and walked into the store. People were there, but the inside was dark. We eventually found the parts man and got the explanation that a car had gone into a power pole and they were without power. They expected it to be restored soon. He had the part I needed though. We found it with a flashlight and he wrote up a ticket the old fashioned way, by hand, and took down our credit card number and I signed it. The new locking pins worked great.
Joy noticed some time later that the credit card had not gone through. The receipt didn't even have that name of the store and we couldn't remember the town where we stopped, so we were stuck. This past Monday morning we were driving down the same stretch of I-95 and we remembered to look for the store. We passed by before they were open, but we got their name and found a phone number. Joy called and explained what happened. She told the same story to three incredulous people before getting to the guy who helped us. He had tried to run it through but it didn't go through. He had written the number down wrong. Joy gave him the right numbers. He said he had written it off; that he was going to have to eat that one. He thanked Joy for calling back and settling the bill.
"Not many people would do that" he said.
Why not I ask?

Surprised in Sarasota

(Sarasota, FL: 2 March 2010) We made it back to Florida for the second round of RV renovation. Since we had to be out of the way for the day we originally were planning and looking forward to some relaxing beach time. Overnight the weather turned nasty with thunderstorms coming in before dawn and raining most of the morning. We googled "off the beaten path, florida", for something to do indoors, and found a place we would have never visited. When we asked Harry, the salesmen here at Classic Coach Works, whether he had heard of the Circus Museum in Sarasota, he quickly seconded the high reviews we saw on the internet.
And we were not disappointed.
After about a 90 minute drive we arrived just in time to slip into a movie explaining the history and rebuilding of the Asolo Theater which was followed by a movie about John and Mable Ringling, the founder and benefactor of the campus of museum's we were about to see. The movie provided a great orientation. John Ringling was one of the famous Ringling Brothers of circus fame, who, in the late 1800's/early 1900's created and grew the most successful circus in history. They were 5 boys from a strict Christian family from Baraboo, Wisconsin. One year a circus came to town and captivated the boys imaginations. They worked on their own acts and started putting on shows locally. They got better and better at it. Family's appreciated them not using profanity in their acts and having a strict behavior code for their performers, they were known for their honest business dealings and their business grew. Eventually they took the show on the road and the rest is history. Eventually they moved the circus' winter home to Sarasota, Florida after John and Mable bought land around Sarasota Bay. They became wealthy not only from the amazing success of the circus operations, but from land, oil, and railroad investments. Mable built an incredible mansion, Ca' d'Zan (Home of John) and gardens here. They educated themselves in art and traveled extensively collecting art. They bought so many works of art that their home couldn't hold it all. So, they built a building, a museum; an amazing work of art in itself, to house their collection. Mable died after living in the mansion she built only three years. The Depression hit, John, the last surviving brother, lost all the circus holdings, but he managed to keep the art collection together. He was devastated financially. When he died in 1936 he had $311 in the bank. He left the mansion, the museum, the art collection and 20 acres of land on Sarasota Bay to the State of Florida. They are managed by Florida State University through a trust and a foundation. The museum is said to be the 20th most significant art museum in the US. The two circus museum's were actually established after Ringling's death. One museum has circus memorabilia, wagons, costumes, handbills and advertising and stuff from the filming of the movie The Greatest Show on Earth, filmed on location in Sarasota. The most incredible part of the circus museum though is an entire Ringling Brothers Barnum and Bailey circus circa 1919-1938 in miniature! That's right the entire circus...everything you could possibly think of connected to the circus, carved and built from wood! It was made by a man named Howard Tibbals and took him over 50 years to complete!
Yes, were were definitely pleasantly surprised by Sarasota!